ANSP Public Presentation Now Available

Yesterday the folks at ISCD fulfilled their earlier promise of making available a copy of the public presentation being made around the country about the Ammonium Nitrate Security Program (ANSP). The link to the .PDF document can be found on the Ammonium Nitrate Security Program web site (and here of course).

As I expected this is just a copy of the 23-slides used in the presentation. ISCD has been slow to adopt video technology in support of their programs and fail to realize that slides alone are not the full measure of the information that was provided at these meetings. Or at least we hope that the presenter was more professional than just reading the slides to the audience.

ISCD Publishes Meeting Notice

Today the DHS Infrastructure Security Compliance Division of NPPD published a notice in the Federal Register (76 FR 62311-62312) officially announcing the upcoming series of public meetings on the proposed Ammonium Nitrated Security Program (ANSP). This is the same series of meetings that has been unofficially reported on the ANSP web site and this is the Notice that I had predicted would be published in writing about that list.

The notice also provides a title (but no name for some reason) for the point of contact telephone number listed on the web page. The POC is the Ammonium Nitrate Security Program Manager at (703) 235-5263.

ANSP Presentation

Today’s Notice notes that ISCD will begin each of these meetings with a presentation outlining the ANSP. They also report that a copy of the presentation will be made available “in mid-October” (next week?) on the ANSP web site. I suspect that this will be just a copy of the slide presentation about the program.

As is usual, I would like to suggest that DHS should instead make a video copy of the actual presentation made at the Jackson, MS meeting and make that available on the web site. This video would provide more information than the slide presentation. Actually, if I was running the program I would produce a scripted and rehearsed video of the presentation and use that at each of the meetings as well, but it’s probably too late for DHS to do that.

Public Input

The Notice informs us that DHS is looking for public comments about the ANSP in general and specifically about four major issues. The Notice lists those issues along with some specific information DHS is looking for concerning each issue. The four major issues are:

• Ammonium nitrate use and characteristics;

• Registration processes;

• Identity verification processes; and

• Recordkeeping requirements.

DHS again emphasizes in this Notice that people that are not able to attend one of these presentations may make written comments on this proposed ANSP program via the Federal eRulemaking Portal (www.Regulations.gov; Docket #  DHS-2008-0076). The Notice fails to report that such comments need to be submitted by December 1^st, 2011.

ISCD Updates ANSP Information

Today the folks at DHS ISCD updated their information regarding the ammonium nitrated security program (ANSP) public meetings on two different web sites. First they updated the list of public meeting sites on the ANSP web page. Second they added information about the public meetings to the CFATS Knowledge Center.

Update ANSP Web Page

The updated information on the ANSP web page removed the first two meetings; the ones scheduled for today in Mobile, AL and the one for Thursday in Savannah, GA. Actually the one in Mobile was rescheduled for November 8^th; the one in Savannah was rescheduled for November 1^st.

There was no explanation given for the rescheduling. Hopefully not too many people had already showed up for the Mobile, AL meeting this morning. Since there was no registration for attendees there was no way for ISCD to notify them of the change.

CFATS Knowledge Center

The updated list of meeting sites was included today in an article on the CFATS Knowledge Center. There is a brief note about the meetings in the “Latest News” section that points readers at a generic ‘article’. The actual listing is found in Article 1727 (NOTE: there are no permanent links to Knowledge Center articles or FAQ; enter ‘Article 1727’ in the search box to get the current link).

There are a couple of new pieces of information available in this Article that are not mentioned on the ANSP web site. First the Article notes that “though sign‐in sheets will be provided to voluntarily collect contact information from the attending public and to properly log oral comments received during the meetings”. This is important because DHS will be recording comments at these meetings as part of the public comment process for the NPRM that would establish this program. The notice about this recording and reporting of the public comments is the second new piece of information.

The third new piece of information deals with the lack of point of contact information that I mentioned in my blog posting about the original publication of this list of public meetings. There is still no POC information on the ANSP web site, but this article does provide a telephone number for people with disabilities to request appropriate accommodations. This isn’t quite a POC, but it would probably lead to one if someone were to push hard enough.

Still No Federal Register Announcement

I suspect that the reason for the postponement of the first two meetings is that there was no announcement of the public meetings in the Federal Register. With the large number of meetings scheduled ISCD probably could have gone forward with these meetings without running the risk of complaints, but it is just another indication of the care with which this program development is proceeding.

DHS to Hold Ammonium Nitrate Security Program Meetings

Thanks to a TWEET® from ADTchemical I found out that DHS had updated their Ammonium Nitrate Security Program web site. The revised page provides a list of cities in which DHS will be holding public meetings to discuss the proposed ANSP described in the notice of proposed rulemaking published last August. The dates and cities are:

• October 6, 2011; Savannah, Ga.;

• October 11, 2011; Jackson, Miss.;

• October 13, 2011; Lubbock, Texas ;

• October 18, 2011; Sacramento, Calif.;

• October 20, 2011; Knoxville, Tenn.;

• October 25, 2011; Overland, Kan.;

• October 27, 2011; Oklahoma City, Okla.;

• November 3, 2011; Charleston, W.Va.;

• November 10, 2011; Washington, D.C.; and

• November 15, 2011; Denver, Colo.

The web site provides addresses for the meeting sites, but there is no contact information for further information from DHS, nor is there any mention of a registration requirement.

I would suspect that there should be a notice published in the Federal Register in the near future about these meetings since they support the public review and comment process for the establishment of this proposed rule.

Coast Guard to Webcast Meeting

A couple of weeks ago I did a blog posting about a couple of public ‘listening sessions’ the Coast Guard had planned for August to get public input on the ‘Certain Dangerous Cargos (CDC) Security National Strategy’ currently being drafted for maritime transportation systems. In closing that posting I suggested that:

“It would seem to me that, with the limited number of meetings currently scheduled, that the Coast Guard should maximize public access to these discussions by making one or both of these meetings available as a webcast.”

Well a post yesterday by Debbie Whaley over at MSPINT.com notes that the Coast Guard is actually going to do that. She provides a link to the CG Flash Player site (http://trial4.cdn.level3.net/USCGLivePlayer_040611.htm) where the meeting will be broad cast, but there is nothing there now. Nor can I find anything on the Coast Guard web pages for the Office of Port & Facility Activities about the meetings (actually nothing much there but contact information).

In any case, I am glad to see that at least one office in the Department of Homeland Security is moving their public meetings into the 21st Century. To keep this kind of public access available, I urge anyone with an interest in the Certain Dangerous Cargos program to log on to at least one of the two meetings; both at 8:00 am to Noon (I’m assuming CDT; it wasn’t specified in the Federal Register notice) on August 2nd or August 18th.

For further information about the two meetings send an email to CDC@uscg.mil.